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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: tube · wax · chair · game · hand · field · pass · land

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  8. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. I'll be taking the ________________.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. hand — help
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. wax — to grow
  6. game — a match
  7. tube — in a tire
  8. pass — to spend time
  9. land — ground
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. tube — a container
  12. field — farmland
  13. game — wild animals
  14. hand — in cards
  15. pass — a permit
  16. field — for sport
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. land — to come down
  19. field — a subject
  20. tube — the underground
  21. land — a country
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. pass — to succeed

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com